George Harrison’s sister shares Beatles family pictures and US debut

London, Apr 9 (ANI): George Harrison’s elder sister Louise has for the first time shared some of the rare family pictures with ‘The Beatles’, and revealed the role she played in the Fab Four’s big American break.

The 78-year-old lady provided a peek into never-before-seen photographs in an intimate family album.

Louise had moved to the States with her mining engineer husband Gordon in 1963, just as Beatlemania was gripping Britain.

She has now talked about the efforts she made to get The Beatles into the US.

“Back in 1963 no one had heard of The Beatles in America. It was all Elvis and do-wop music,” the Mirror quoted her as saying.

She added: “Their records were not being played on the radio by any stations, and without that exposure they would never sell any records.”

Then, Louise wrote to the band’s manager Brian Epstein, and offered her help in plugging the records across the Atlantic.

“I was a timid housewife with two small kids, but I wanted to do all I could to help my kid brother,” she said.

After many US radio DJs refused to play their songs, Louise urged Epstein to get the band on the highly popular Ed Sullivan TV show.

And while Epstein was inundated with calls asking for the Beatles to perform, Louise claimed that it was her Ed Sullivan tip-off that helped persuade the manager.

“Brian said he hardly took any of the calls asking The Beatles to perform, but because I had told him about Ed Sullivan he decided to take his call. And I’m sure he was glad that he did!” she said.

A record 72 million people watched the show and Beatlemania took off across the US.

However, George did not speak to her for six years after she opened a bed and breakfast called ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in her home of Benton, Illinois.

But two weeks before he died, George relented patched up with his elder sister as he lay in a New York hospital. (ANI)